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Ever seen a sign around your supermarket’s meat department that says ‘We gladly break packages’? Here’s what it means and how it can save you money.

Save more by buying less

For those not familiar with the term, loss leaders are the items advertised on the front of the sales circular. Typically, they’ll be meat or poultry—along with some produce. The loss leaders change each week and they’re advertised and sold as a discount to get you in the door in the hopes you’ll buy other things at full price.

But sometimes, you don’t want to or can’t wait for your favorite cut of meat to go on sale. If that’s the case, find out if your meat department will ‘break the package.’

Here’s how this works: Say you see a package of Italian sausages that contains six large links and is sold by the pound. But you’re a single person and maybe you only need two or three of those links. You don’t want to buy too much because you’re a little tight on money this week.

So what you do is go to the window at the meat department and ask if they’ll break the package for you. That means they’ll open it up, take out the three links you want and repackage it for you on a new styrofoam tray. Then they’ll shrinkwrap it, stick the new price tag on it and hand it back to you.

You’ll have a smaller package that you’ll pay less for vs. the original package!

WATCH: How to break a package at the supermarket

Theo has co-written several books with Clark Howard, including the New York Times #1 bestseller Living Large in Lean Times. As a single widowed parent of two young children, he strives to bring unique savings tips to men and women like him who must face life without their spouses. He can be reached at [email protected]